Western Province Downhill Round #3 - Paarl

Last weekend saw the third round of the WP DH, this time in Paarl, just below the Taal Monument. We have had such a good Autumn, with lots of crisp sunny days and a few little sprinkles of rain to settle the dust. Sunday was one of the crisp days, with no wind or rain in sight!

An early start with registration and some bike maintenance and then time for shuttles to the top. Paarl has the best shuttle road by far, so riders would be able to get to the top fast and get lots of runs in.

Practice was from around 9 to 2pm, so riders had a lot of time to warm up and find their lines. The top of the track is in open fynbos starting off with some tight switchbacks into an off camber rock garden with some serious ruts on the way out, which claimed a few victims. Next is a fast steep section with a few jumps & drops. Some changes have been made to the track and a rock garden lower down had been removed and replaced with two small flowy jumps just before the road gap that leads you into the pine trees.

The corners lower down on the track looked like staircases with the braking bumps getting so bad you couldn’t make the steps more perfect if you tried. Some of the corners that were blown out before had been fixed were hard packed and not budging despite the abuse.

The crowd favourite for the race runs was the hip down at the bottom, most were staying fast & low, but a few guys got some whips and tables out for the spectators. A few more fast corners and small jumps took you to the finish line.

A few tumbles in practice kept the medics busy, but luckily nothing too serious this time round.

After the first few guys were down, Jaco Veldsmann put up a 2:01 that kept him in the hot seat for quite a while. Devon Katzen proceeded to smash that with a 1:56 after he crossed the line & then it was up to the last few to see what they could put on the board.

In the end, pinner, Theo Erlangsen took the top spot with 1:48 followed by Duran “The Mexican” van Eeden 1:51 and local wild man Adriaan Smit 1:52. Full results available here.

Thanks once again to WP DH for organising another awesome day on the mountain and to X-Fusion, cSixx, PaarlMedia, Novus Holdings, Subaru CT and DCP for their support and making these races possible!